• Lvxferre@lemmy.mlM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    2 years ago

    TL;DR: user contribution will go down, astroturfing will go up. Reddit is shooting its own foot, again.

    The pic shows $6/gold, or $2/gold. Top contributors would get $1/gold. So Reddit is pocketing 50%+ of the value. Except that the platform kicked off the ones who’d actually contribute with it, so users will barely use the new system. You know who would do it, though? Corporations. For them it means “pay one dollar for advertisement, get half dollar back” is a treat. Astroturfing will get rampant.

    To be eligible for the Contributor Program, you’ll need to be older than 18, live in a “supported location” (which at first is just the US),

    I remember doing maths as this subject popped up; the program would exclude 70% of the userbase. And there are few things that piss people off more than feeling unrewarded - “you rewarded him, why not me? I’m not contributing, fuck off.”

    Rathschmidt said Reddit will use things like […]

    Except that nothing fucking works properly in Reddit. And Reddit will certainly not put reasonable measures against its own short-term profit, so that’s likely just lip service.

  • NevermindNoMind@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    2 years ago

    Incredible system! You buy gold for $1.99 each, then the awardee can cash it out (terms and conditions apply) for $0.90 (or $1 for top contributors). Just put a PayPal in your profile and cut out the middleman and his 100% markup. Meh, whatever time to spin up a repost/karma bot - might as well cash in if reddit is this intent on their site going to shit. I’m just going to feed the top aita posts of all time into an ai bot and let it create garbage “golden up vote” bait.

      • extant@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 years ago

        Most of the bots all work the same, as an example they find a popular post and repost it knowing it will be popular, and if you have multiple bots all the better while you copy popular comments from that same thread and make those comments knowing they will be a net gain. Of course karma didn’t matter so the reposting of popular content was just to make the bot look like a real user by having content and comment history for the real end goal of propaganda networks where articles can be posted and bots can go agree, disagree, or be antagonistic (trolling) to xause dissent towards specific groups. Advertisement networks where products or services are promoted by either posting links and discussions, or by searching for discussions in progress and recommending things. It all boils down to manipulating and influencing for a favorable outcome, it helps control the narrative when you can promote or bury the statements and things you want and doing that requires lots of followers or lots of bots.

  • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    2 years ago

    So they’re now stooping to paying pennies to convince people to return? Good luck with that. You’ll never offer me enough to return.

    • Hello Hotel@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 years ago

      With no strong confidence I think it mabe more of a crypto style “own a reddit post” kind of idea

  • Wage_slave@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    2 years ago

    So to solve an already pretty fucked up and growing bot problem they are going to incentivize bots?

    How very fucking stupid and spezzy of them.

  • Hello Hotel@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 years ago

    If the systems are so simmlar, why create a new worse one and retire an the old one. Am i not seeing somthing?